KEPHA MOSOTI

Artwork

Country: Kenya • Medium: Wood/Mixed Media

As a youth, Kepha started honing his artistic skills by figure, nature and landscape drawing, but the urge to sculpt grew more and more as years went by.
He is now one of Kenya’s foremost sculptors.
Nyanza province and Kisii in particular, where Kepha was born and raised, has a rich history of curving and sculpting, and this had a great influence in his career as an artist.
His wooden and mixed media sculptures are characterized by a blend of both realism and abstract forms. Using fire sometimes, he achieves remarkable results as the wood and its features is accentuated by burning them and later brushing off the edges.
He also paints, but leans more towards sculpting as he feels 3 dimensional pieces readily express emotion, including features and expressions on the human face. He favours the human form too saying he relates to it better than anything else.
Kepha also makes exemplary pieces based on footwear, with some that have socio- political stories behind them. The sculptor is heavily inspired by fellow Kenyan artists Cyrus Kabiru and particularly Dennis Muraguri, who he shares similar themes.
Kepha holds a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Buruburu Institute of Fine Arts and currently works in the Kenyan capital; Nairobi.